Andy someone said there is a Toyota phone number that if you give them your VIN they can tell you all of this stuff.

Kinda bummed that my locker will not get here for 6-10 days. Oh well. I will have to wait to get it installed after Superstition 9.

 

I am glad to at least have it in motion. Literally! LOL And I have appreciated your input onthis Brad. Very valuable!

 

X2. The more info the better.

 

quick comment since every one else has seemed to cover most of it. I got a detroit in one truck and a spool in my other. The locker is perfectly acceptable for me on and OFF road. It is different but I have not had any pronblems that the horror stories warn of. It is also a lot stronger but requires setting up the ring and pinion which can be pricey. same for the spool. Roadracers use spools and detroits and u don't see them sliding off the road everywhere (well not usually). Also if u keep ur tires inflated properly the effect are almost unnoticable.

 

Thanks. I know what your saying. There needs to be modification done to the housing no matter what, but it shouldn't matter whether you start with a tacoma elocker or a 4runner elocker, correct?

 

The Lock-Rite is all you need. Don't be scared of its manners on-road, it is not bad and you get used to it 10 minutes of driving.

 

ya, the third members are identical I believe.

Andy is the part you purchased a locker or limited slip? I think I might wanna put LSD in the front of mine.

 

Brad I think a LSD Truetrac Detroit or some sort of gear driven lsd would be awesome in the front. Very cool.

 

How did you determine you had 4.30s? I've got this axle code but it's listed 3 times. Mine came with the 265/70 tires so I'd think I had 4.10s, but how would I know if it's 4.30s short of jacking up the rear and rotating the tires and counting revolutions?

VZN185L-GKPGKA 3.909
VZN185L-GKPGKA 4.100 With P265/70R16
VZN185L-GKPGKA 4.300 Option

 

That is the only way to know for sure. And, its easy to do.



I would like someone from snow country (like Alaska) to chime in about lunch box lockers. A friend of mine ran either a no-slip powertrax or detroit softlocker in Fairbanks Alaska in a 2wd taco extended cab. He didn't have any complaints except that it chewed up the rear tires really fast. Granted, he usually had a 4 wheeler or tank of AV gas in the bed of the truck. Rolling into a parking space, even on snowpack, it would unlock and tick. But apply gas and it would lock up.

If its only a couple hours work I am thinking about running one in the non-snowy months here and open in the winter. Actually the snow is just north of here, not in Farmington so much. But I would hate to go spinning in circles on an elk hunting trip or somewhere an unexpected snowstorm could be encountered.

 

I ran a Lock-Rite in the rear of my 4x4 97 Taco. Other than it being brutal on road with all the banging, popping, clicking, and lurching I never had any issues with the rear being uncontrollable. I would walk on you if you got the rear wheels spinning, but it was easily controllable and I found it more predictable than when running with an open diff. I did quite a bit of driving in the snow on a road trip to Canada as well and did not have issues.

Having said that, I would NEVER run that type of locker in a daily driven vehicle again. It was just a headache with all the side effects and I got tired of people coming up to me in parking lots telling me something was broken in my axle.

 

I find that humorous too...

 

Ryan and I dropped off my Runner to have the Detroit locker installed. So if all goes well I should be locked tomorrow night!

Kinda stoked. Can you tell?

 

Hope it's not a daily driver <Cringe>

 

If you have full control of the position of your left and right foot independently, you won't have any trouble using your detroit-locked runner as a DD.

 

so after 3 pages and 56 posts, i still cant decide what i should put in mine.

about 80% of my driving is intown/highway, 20 is offroad. i dont do sand, but snow and ice seem to be in my future when i move up north to get away from suburban hell. oh and since this probably matters, i have an auto, but drive with 2 feet (one on the skinny, one hovering on the brake so when someone cuts me off i can stop)

arb is out of my pricerange, as i think the elocker would be, plus i dont quite have the know how to do that. (right? im kinda confused!!!)

i know there are tons and tons of "what locker should i get" threads. really i just want a "you shouldnt get this, you should get this or this." and i know thats kinda hard and spoon feeding, but ive heard so many conflicting things on all of them. some people hate it, some people love it.

so basically its the elocker, lunchbox, or detroit.

 

Does Toyota make, or can you retrofit a limited-slip differential on the 4Runners?

I know the value of a lockable rear-end from my Mitsubishi 250 4wd tractor. In some situations, it is the only thing that keeps you going forward (or backward).

Otoh, I also know that a good limited slip differential is worthwhile in many situations. We have 4miles of dirt road before we get home. The last mile has a steady climb maybe getting to 30degrees (I know... big deal) at times. If the rain is steady for over 3 days, it is impossible to get through without four wheel drive. BUT, of all the two wheel vehicles we own up here, the last one to get stuck is my Rx7... because of the equal weight distribution and the limited slip.

So I'm wondering if limited slip is an "option" on 4Runners.

 

I had a "lunch box" Lock-Rite in my 97' Tacoma and hated it. Herky Jerky on the road and clickity clickty bang bang turning around or parking. I'll never use one of those again.

http://www.geocities.com/4x4guy.geo/

Had a TRD electric locker in my 99 TRD Tacoma and loved it. I did the grey wire mod to make it work whenever I hit the button and it was pretty much flawless.

 

Eric is officially "locked" now. I am about to take his truck on a run without him!! Make sure it works as good as mine

 

A detroit is not a lunchbox locker first off unless you go with the Detroit EZ locker which I did not. So compairing one to a lock rite is not an apples to apples compairison.

So like Marc said my locker is installed and I drove her around a good bit tonight. So far I would say that is definetely something I can live with. It unlocks well around tight turns as long as you are not well into the skinny peddle. If you do get on her hard in a tight turn she locks up (like it should) and you are getting full lock right now. So I will have to make some small adjustments to my driving style but I don't drive my lifted SUV like it is a sports car to begin with so should not be a big deal.

It is my DD for now but plan on getting a small car in a few months due to a longer commute. Not because it is locked but because I don't want all those miles on the Runner.

I will keep you guys posted as to how it does every so often.